


The Force Works in Mysterious Ways

by Vivien



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Healing, Mentions of Blood, predatory Rey, the Force works in mysterious ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 10:44:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9120187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivien/pseuds/Vivien
Summary: Sometimes you just know what you need to do.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agirlfromniima](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlfromniima/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this, agirlfromniima! It was fun to write for you!

Rey blinked her eyes against the sudden light from the Falcon. She looked up, her tears freezing on her cheeks, as she huddled beside Finn’s still body. Chewie had found them. Escape… they’d be able to escape this shuddering wreck of a planet.

It wasn’t until she was safely onboard that she realized she couldn’t leave yet. The agony that nearly doubled her over didn’t belong to her. Despite everything, she knew -- just as she’d known what to fool the guard into doing as she told him and what to do when the lightsaber had flown into her hand -- that she was not done yet.

“Chewie… you’re not going to like this,” she called, tucking the emergency foil blanket around Finn and then charging into the cockpit.

* * *

 

As they hovered over the splintering trees, X-wings and TIE fighters danced in battle, and explosions lit up their field of view from below and above. An upsilon class shuttle – the same one, Chewie knew, that had brought Rey here – swooped in from the direction of the wreckage of the base. A spiraling TIE fighter crashed into it, followed by a strafing run from two X-wing fighters that destroyed it, sending it flaming into the snowy pines.

Rey took a deep breath as the despair – the despair that did not belong to her – washed over her.

“Chewie, get Finn out of here. Promise me. Don’t wait.”

The Wookiee howled at her, assuring her she needed to stop acting like Kylo Ren was worth saving.

“I know, I know, I just – it hurts so much. And I feel like – like I have to. I can’t explain. It’s the- the Force, I think. Please help me?”

Chewbacca gazed at her, tilted his head slightly, and finally nodded, setting the Falcon down in a clearing.

Rey sprang from her seat and rushed towards the gangway. “Thank you! I’ll get out, I know it. Just keep Finn safe.”

Her knuckles were white from their grasp around the hilt of the lightsaber. She glanced one more time at Finn, and then she dashed into the cold chaos of the dying planet.

“Kriff, I should have snatched a blanket,” she mumbled to herself as her toes chilled within her boots once again.

* * *

The crevasse that had separated the two enemies in battle stretched out before her, and she ran along the edge, looking for her foe’s shape in black and shadows.  All around her explosions sounded, both inorganic and organic, and the ground rumbled underneath her so hard that she pitched sideways into the snow more than once.

She found a trail of blood where Kylo had dragged himself through the snow, and Rey followed it to where he leaned, propped against a tree.

He didn’t seem surprised to see her.  His dark eyes took her in, and he nodded. “Came back to finish me off? My end is near enough to make that an epic waste of time, scavenger.”

“I don’t know why I came back,” she said, standing before him, her legs spread wide and her hands on her hips. “Only I knew I had to.”

Kylo laughed and then coughed, leaning his forehead against the tree. “We’ll both die then. An even more epic waste.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, scowling. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”

He regarded her in amazement. “Are you- have you gone mad? I’ve heard the cold can make one lose their wits if they’re not used to it.”

“Shut up,” she said, and then she crouched down in front of him. “Maybe I have.”  She watched his wide open face, and the second-hand despair abated somewhat. He was different like this, huddled into himself, defeated. At her mercy.

That predatory thrill of pleasure that had tempted her before the chasm forcibly separated them shivered through her. She wouldn’t be plunging her lightsaber through his heart – unless she had to – but that didn’t mean she didn’t have mastery over him.

Another chuckle turned into a cough, and Kylo wiped away a dribble of blood from his lips. “I’d have liked to have been your teacher. I’d have liked that very much. You’re ferocious.”

“I said, shut up. You’re wasting energy.”  She stopped short, her palms stretched out to him, and she acted on pure instinct, as she had been doing every moment since they locked minds and she backed him down.

A flood of images came to her, along with waves of pain, and she knew what she needed to do. She pulled the belt from around his waist and discarded it over her shoulder as he batted ineffectual blows against her arms and hands.

“Stop, stop it,” he demanded, and his words descended into yet more coughing.

Rey ignored him, and she found the rent in his tunic from the bowcaster shot. That was the worst of his injuries at the moment. The slash on his shoulder and face had cauterized, as had the jab through his shoulder, but the wound on his side was still leaking blood at an all too rapid rate. Rey ripped the fabric wider to access the skin underneath, and Kylo stilled, watching her with wide, amazed eyes.

She pulled off one of her arm wraps and pressed it in a wad against the bleeding skin, applying steady pressure. And then… and then she willed the blood to stop, the cells to heal, the wound to close. One hand moved under the makeshift bandage to press against  her enemy’s side. He shivered, and a gasp escaped his full lips at her touch. Heat flowed from her hands, and Kylo relaxed against the tree, still watching her in wonder.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” He asked her, his voice hushed.

“No clue. I’m just doing what needs doing.”

He shook his head. “You’re remarkable. Do you have any idea? No, of course you don’t, you-“ His frame shook with more coughing.

“Be quiet,” she said, scowling and pressing her hand more firmly against his flesh. She discarded her bloodied wrap and placed her other hand on his flank, stroking up along the ruin of the wound. This rewarded her with another shaky gasp from Kylo Ren. “I’m busy and you’re making things harder.”

Kylo followed her order, closing his eyes.  Rey lifted her hands away after a few moments. The wound wasn’t completely healed, but the flesh was smoother and much less red. The bleeding had stopped.

“Now what are you going to do with me?” Kylo didn’t open his eyes, and Rey shared the numbness of his shock.  He was warm and more comforted than he’d been in a very, very long time here in the frigid waste of his failure. He was giving way to her, again, and this time, she didn’t think she’d let him get away. Oh, no. Not this time.

She gripped his arms, running her hands up and down his biceps, sharing her warmth. “Keep you alive. I guess.”

“Why bother?”

“I’m trying to figure that out myself,” she said, and she slipped her shoulder under his arm, tugging him up with the tree as a prop to help him get to his feet. “I honestly have no idea.”

“The Force works in mysterious ways,” he chuckled darkly, and this time the action didn’t devolve into a coughing spasm.

“The Force,” she repeated, shaking her head and dragging him to his feet. “I hope the Force provides a ship for us to steal.” The earth shook beneath them once more.

“I have no doubt you’ll find one. I hold little doubt about you in general. Now.”

“Hmm. Well.”

“Although, that lightsaber – it belongs to me.”

She smirked as she guided him through the disintegrating forest. “Not anymore.”

He huffed out an indignant sigh, and Rey grinned. He was dangerous, she knew, still feral despite the injuries and the connection blooming between them. She had no doubt she could handle him. She knew it, just as she'd known to come back for him.

Mysterious ways, indeed.


End file.
